Two Boys in the Park
by Amiyrasmom
Summary: Sgt. Gregory Lestrade has lost track of his daughter in the park. 2nd in the Honey 'Verse. Reading order now posted on my profile.


**Disclaimer: All I wanted for Christmas was a John and a Sherlock and a Greg. Unfortunately, for me, Santa hates me. I didn't get them so they're still not mine.**

**A/N: Okay, I did a bit of research since I'm not British and according to my readings Serjeant is how Sergeant is spelled in the U.K. Also I don't know Lestrade's wife's name or even if he has children. Once again this is an AU and it's from the Honey 'Verse it's the same universe as Sherlock's Smiles. Read on.**

**Two Boys in the Park**

Serjeant Gregory Lestrade of New Scotland Yard was panicking. He knew he was panicking. He also knew that panicking didn't help but he didn't actually care. Normally he was a very stoic person but when one lost their six year old daughter in a crowded park one was allowed to panic a bit. His wife, Joanne, was going to bloody well murder him.

"Colleen!" He called for his daughter even though he knew she wouldn't be able to hear him over the noise of the crowd.

He'd taken his eyes off of her for only a moment when that woman had screamed. Only long enough to determine that it was a scream of laughter and then Colleen was gone. She had disappeared into the mass of people that were populating the park for the annual St. George's Day celebration.

He should have known better than to bring her to this mess. But Joanne and the baby had been home from the hospital for only a day and Colleen was a rowdy little girl. Joanne needed to rest and Colleen's noise had kept waking up Ben. He should have taken her somewhere else. She was only six. She didn't understand why there was a party in the park only that there was one and that she wanted to go. Greg hadn't seen the harm in it. Until now. This was the worst idea he'd ever had.

"Colleen!" He shouted again.

A few people stared over at him but he ignored them. He had to find his daughter.

"COLLEEN!" He yelled as loud as he could.

"Excuse me," a soft voice said from behind him. "Did you happen to lose this?"

Greg spun around and sagged with relief. Between a teenage boy with dark hair and an older boy, maybe twenties, with sandy blond hair, stood his six year old daughter licking at an ice cream cone. "Colleen, thank God!" He swept her up in his arms, sticky ice cream and all.

"Hi Daddy," Colleen said cheerfully and gave him a sticky kiss on his cheek. "Sh'lock said he could find you."

"Sherlock," the dark haired teen corrected. Greg felt like those grey eyes were assessing him and he wondered why. Then he remembered that he had lost his daughter in the crowd. The teen was obviously questioning his worth as a father. That was all right though, because he was already doing that himself.

"Tha's what I said, silly. Anyways, I was scared when I couldn't find you. You shouldn't get lost, Daddy, it's scary. I sat under a tree and cried cuz you weren't here and John and Sh'lock found me and promised to find you if I stopped crying. I couldn't stop though so John gave me a hug and Sh'lock bought me this ice cream. Then I stopped crying and we came and Sh'lock _did _find you just like he promised. I like Sh'lock and John, Daddy. Can they come over for dinner?"

"Sherlock," the dark haired boy corrected again. "And your father doesn't know us, Colleen. He can't take us into his home with his new born baby and little girl without knowing us first. He's obviously a good parent and he wouldn't endanger any of you."

Colleen stopped mid lick. "How'd you know I had a new baby brother? I didn't tell you that. I didn't tell him you were a cop either, Daddy but he knew that too."

Greg felt himself stiffen, he set Colleen down and tried to push her behind him but she would have none of it and evaded his hands to go back to the pair of strangers. She grinned at them both and grabbed the dark haired boy's hand. He grimaced at the stickiness but allowed it.

"Oh, don't worry sir," the sandy haired youth cut in. "We're not stalking you or anything. Sherlock's super smart and he can tell things about people from looking at them." Greg only raised an eyebrow at them. The sandy haired youth swallowed. "Tell Colleen and her father how you knew about him being a cop and the baby Sherlock, before he arrests us or punches us."

"Wait!" Greg called out; he hadn't actually meant to scare the boys, he was only worried. Colleen was never friendly with strangers and yet she'd allowed these two boys to lead her off and she took ice cream from them. He eyed the two boys looking for any clues to their intentions. The blond had an open and honest face that just screamed 'trust me'. Greg had been a cop long enough to know not to trust every face like that but this time he couldn't help it. The other boy seemed just as closed off and distrustful as the most seasoned of officers. Yet, when he looked over at the blond or down at Colleen there was an almost imperceptible softening in those grey eyes.

However more than anything else they had found him and brought his daughter to him when he'd lost her. And Colleen trusted them. "First off, thank you for bringing Colleen back to me. I'm Gregory Lestrade." He thrust out a hand to the boys. "Yes I am a sergeant with New Scotland Yard and yes my wife just had a baby boy. Now tell me how you knew."

"Well," Sherlock's eyes gleamed. "Colleen was sitting with her back against the tree trunk. Even though she was scared she wasn't scared of the people around her. She watched them but didn't answer any of the people that offered to help. It took us ten minutes to get her to talk to us. So based on her reactions she's a cop's daughter. She said her Daddy was lost so obviously you're the police officer in the family.

"Her hair is slightly askew, which means it wasn't her mother who fixed it up. Where's the mother? She's either ill, not in the family anymore or away. I knew when I saw the slight bruising around your left fingers and the trace of spit up on your shoulder that your wife had recently had a baby."

"Hmm," Greg grunted. "Interesting. Weird but interesting." He nodded to himself, decision made, they were good boys. Though really the decision had been made the instant they'd stopped to help a crying little girl, at least for Greg. "What are your names?"

"John and Sh'lock, Daddy. Weren't you listening? John's a soldier and Sh'lock is gonna be a de…tetive, like you." Colleen piped up.

"Sherlock, going to be and detective, Colleen." The dark haired teen corrected her. "Being a child is no excuse for butchering the English language," Sherlock scolded.

Colleen pouted. "Sorry."

John patted her head, even as he glared at Sherlock without much heat. "Hey, don't worry about him, eh? I'm older than him by five years and he still corrects me all the time." This made Colleen grin. John looked back up at Greg. "Sorry, I'm Private John Watson and this is my best friend, Sherlock Holmes."

"Holmes?" Greg felt his eyes widen, just who was this kid? "As in Mycroft Holmes?"

Sherlock scowled, looking for the first time the rebellious teenager Greg had expected . "My brother." He muttered. "He's a pompous, nosy, meddling prat. And those are his good qualities."

"Sherlock," John admonished. "You shouldn't say such things." Sherlock frowned at him but didn't comment.

"I've met him," Greg told them noncommittally. "C'mon, Colleen, boys. I'll treat you to lunch. And no, Colleen, they can't come over for dinner. Not because I don't trust you," he assured them. "But as you deduced Joanne had Ben three days ago and needs her rest."

"There's no need to feed us, Serjeant Lestrade." Sherlock objected.

"Maybe not but you did save my daughter and me. Joanne would have murdered me if I'd lost her. Besides, Colleen will bug us all to death until she gets you two over for dinner and lunch will give me a chance to get to know you."

Sherlock gave him a long look. "You're not just doing this because of Mycroft are you?" Greg wasn't sure but he thought he heard a bit of fear in the boy's voice, it was confirmed when John put a hand on Sherlock's shoulder and squeezed while eyeing Greg warily.

Greg snorted. "Not really. I want to see if you're any better than him at deducing people."

Sherlock grinned. "You've got yourself a deal, Serjeant Lestrade."


End file.
